"But he may struggle with racecraft, this is an area which definitely gets rusty in my experience.

"Schumacher clearly has little to prove but the expectations will nonetheless be very high as he returns at the age of 41.

"In his early F1 career his intense rivalry with Ayrton Senna was tragically cut short by the Brazilian's death in 1994.

"There was no overlap at all with the emerging Lewis Hamilton, a man who some believe precipitated Schumacher's departure, although I don't agree with that. Now, remarkably, we'll get to see them wheel to wheel.

"Schumacher already dominates the record books with most wins at 91 (which is one less than the combined tally of Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna), most pole positions with 68, most fastest laps totalling 76 (which is the same as Prost and Kimi Raikkonen combined), most championship points at 1369, and a record seven world championships (two for Benetton and five consecutive for Ferrari from 2000-2004).

"Schumacher's magnificent career has always been overshadowed by his overly aggressive and sometimes totally unacceptable manoeuvres. I even experienced some of that as his team-mate in 1992. Will time have mellowed him? We'll find out."

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